I am currently working on a project that requires me to take a lot of photos and put them together into a cohesive idea. I thought it would be super cool if I took multiple macro shots and put them together to represent a tulip. So, I'm out there finding cool tulips and getting cool shots and all the sudden I realize, I have a pretty great macro lens that is allowing me to get some pretty cool shots (like the one above) and it would be silly of me to not take advantage of these shots!
What's a Macro?
By dictionary definition macro photography is, "producing photographs of small items larger than life size." Basically, macro photography is a way to look at and appreciate the details of small things that we largely ignore in our daily lives. It's generally a term used when talking about plant photography and is regularly referred to as a "plant portrait" rather than a macro shot.
It's a very difficult technique because you have such a small depth of field to work with that you have to decide what the most important part of the image is. It's also difficult because you have to pay attention to every little detail and decide if it helps or hurts the image and what you're trying to show. Maybe the little scratch in the petal of the flower belongs or maybe it doesn't but that tiny detail otherwise ignored in a landscape shot, suddenly means a lot more!
While I do enjoy plant photography and I have done quite a lot of it, I haven't done a lot of macro shots and I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to see if I really liked it. So far I have really enjoyed taking macro shots and editing them. One interesting thing to me is that although I have a lot of control on where the focus is, sometimes the smallest shift in my focus can change the whole image. It's been frustrating, but also really cool to see what small details really can do to an entire image. I feel like I'm gaining a new appreciation for the small beauties in the world and I also really appreciate that!
